it's official: zombies are now the "in" thing

I agree with another poster Zombies have been on a steady popularity kick most of this decade. Vampires have been going strong since Buffy and with True Blood and Vampire Dairies look to stay strong for another few years.

I'm really wanting Werewolves to take off. They have flirted on the edge with Underworld, but that also is vampires, True Blood(again only in cameo capacity) and again Twilight(there they at least are co-starts I suppose). However, they did get a starring role in Benicio DelToro Wolfman remake. Sadly that didn't catch on fire at the box office. I'd love to see a show/movie series where Werewolves are the upfront focus.

Just in the last ten years we've had 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, five Resident Evil movies, REC, two House of the Dead movies, 8 or 9 "of the Dead" sequels/remakes/spin-offs, Shaun of the Dead, Fido, I Am Legend, Planet Terror, Zombieland, and lots more that I can't think of off the top of my head. I honestly don't think there's a genre more played out than zombie movies. They make vampire movies look fresh and creative.

Sure, but the guy who turns into a straight wolf is a little less horrifying. The Wolf Man works because we can still recognize something of ourselves in him. With the werewolf of lore, once he's in wolf form, we don't see that anymore.

That can be used effectively, if it's given the right slant, but the reaction isn't as visceral.

With the voodoo-type zombie, society isn't too worried about having their minds taken over right now (for good or ill). Romero zombies represent the breakdown of society, which has been an anxiety that's been particularly present in the zeitgeist for the last decade or so. Romero zombies have been around since the sixties, but it's no coincidence that they've really taken hold since the fears of Y2K, 9/11 and beyond. Nor is it happenstance that the majority of modern takes on the Romero zombie involve viruses.

`````Okay, it's official: MTV has hit the bottom of the barrel and is frantically scraping. Of all the "classic" antagonists in horror/monster/B-moviedom, zombies are just the nastiest. I don't mean 'tude: they don't have enough personality to be personally nasty; they just are nasty to deal with, nasty to look at, nasty to think about. If you've ever smelled real corpse-smell (thanks too much for that memory, US Army), you probably don't want to be entertained by lurching, semi-reanimated, rotting corpses, or by their splatterful destruction. Can you imagine what that would smell like IRL, to splash a month-old unpreserved cadaver?
`````The only reason I can come up with for the survival (and now burgeoning) of the genre is the fact that teenage boys, if they can talk teenage girls into accompanying them to a zombie flick, are guaranteed to actually be touched by said girls, in those moments when the screen action gets so graphichorrificnasty that said girls need to bury their heads for a moment in a strong shoulder...or at least an adjacent one. Yes, I freely admit that this view is both sexist and stereotype-laden, but I stand by it.
`````So to recap: Zombies? Ick.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:
Sure, but the guy who turns into a straight wolf is a little less horrifying. The Wolf Man works because we can still recognize something of ourselves in him. With the werewolf of lore, once he's in wolf form, we don't see that anymore.

That can be used effectively, if it's given the right slant, but the reaction isn't as visceral.

With the voodoo-type zombie, society isn't too worried about having their minds taken over right now (for good or ill). Romero zombies represent the breakdown of society, which has been an anxiety that's been particularly present in the zeitgeist for the last decade or so. Romero zombies have been around since the sixties, but it's no coincidence that they've really taken hold since the fears of Y2K, 9/11 and beyond. Nor is it happenstance that the majority of modern takes on the Romero zombie involve viruses.

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I know, but I'm just saying that we've gotten to the point where people think it was ALWAYS that way. I've had multiple conversations, both here and elsewhere, with people who don't know the original concept of a zombie was of a corpse raised by voodoo, who obeys the command of his master. And that a werewolf was simply a guy who turns into a wolf.

And when they hear about these versions, they think someone got it wrong!

Oh, I get what you're saying, and I agree--these folks ought to get set right.

And certainly, the zombies and werewolves you're talking about can be made into effective movies and books. Just a few months ago, RJDiogenes and I were talking about David Wellington's FROSTBITE, which is about a woman who becomes that type of "total" werewolf. (The sequel was just released yesterday; I'm gonna have to snap it up.)

So it can be done effectively. It's just not going to be the norm anytime soon.

I'm really wanting Werewolves to take off. They have flirted on the edge with Underworld, but that also is vampires, True Blood(again only in cameo capacity) and again Twilight(there they at least are co-starts I suppose). However, they did get a starring role in Benicio DelToro Wolfman remake. Sadly that didn't catch on fire at the box office. I'd love to see a show/movie series where Werewolves are the upfront focus.

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The problem might be that werewolves are too alive for Big Media's puritanical tastes. Vampires can be sleek, cold, detached mopers and brooders who dress well and agonize about their soulless plight. Werewolves, on the other hand, are living, hot-blooded, beasts who like red meat, roaring fires, and a good time.

In short, any really solid depiction of werewolves would show them having copious wild and hot shagging. But since Big Media loathes nothing so much as a group of people that enjoys getting it on... they get neglected.

Zombies have been over ever since. Zombie movies have just been shambling on, scooping out the brains of the audience and snarfing them down. The eldritch half-life of a defunct genre is a metafictional modeling of the semiotic reality of the zombie movie. Which, lest we forget, is dead since Joe Piscopo sent it up!

Just remember, the classic werewolf was just a guy who turned into a wolf. NOT a wolf-man. The current generation has trouble with that one, too.

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Mostly, yeah, although there was a bit of variety in the Werewolves of folklore. They often retained wolf-like traits while in Human form, and Human traits while in wolf form. Vampires of folklore were very different, too, more corpse-like and far less romanticized.

Just a few months ago, RJDiogenes and I were talking about David Wellington's FROSTBITE, which is about a woman who becomes that type of "total" werewolf. (The sequel was just released yesterday; I'm gonna have to snap it up.)

Werewolves, on the other hand, are living, hot-blooded, beasts who like red meat, roaring fires, and a good time.

In short, any really solid depiction of werewolves would show them having copious wild and hot shagging. But since Big Media loathes nothing so much as a group of people that enjoys getting it on... they get neglected.

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Not necessarily. Many Werewolves have been depicted sympathetically, from Larry Talbot to Jack Russell to American Werewolf to that guy in the Werewolf series back in the 80s.

I'm really wanting Werewolves to take off. They have flirted on the edge with Underworld, but that also is vampires, True Blood(again only in cameo capacity) and again Twilight(there they at least are co-starts I suppose). However, they did get a starring role in Benicio DelToro Wolfman remake. Sadly that didn't catch on fire at the box office. I'd love to see a show/movie series where Werewolves are the upfront focus.

Click to expand...

The problem might be that werewolves are too alive for Big Media's puritanical tastes. Vampires can be sleek, cold, detached mopers and brooders who dress well and agonize about their soulless plight. Werewolves, on the other hand, are living, hot-blooded, beasts who like red meat, roaring fires, and a good time.

In short, any really solid depiction of werewolves would show them having copious wild and hot shagging. But since Big Media loathes nothing so much as a group of people that enjoys getting it on... they get neglected.

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The vampires of the past 10yrs have had plenty of copious wild & hot shagging. We went from PG stylized versions of Buffy & Angel getting it on in S3 to flat out soft core porn with True Blood. Werewolves may as well get their turn.
Maybe the philosophical angel for them could be to rid themsevles of the curse or control it, not too undifferent from vamps really.